Aircel to popularise the use of mobile internet have drawn attention to this particular communication platform Aircel's Pocket Internet offers mobile internet services at Rs 14 (for three days) and Rs 98 (for a month).Other telecom players are actively considering more data packages. But why all this action when, according to data from the Internet & Mobile Association of India, only 4% of the 36 million active internet users in India access the net over their cell phones once a month?
The answer lies in the fact that, while these numbers are small, the usage of internet through cell phones has more than doubled from last year. But it's only recently that serious mobile internet users began to realise that mobile data costs can get overwhelming.
'You need a high-speed data plan on a smart phone. Now, if you exhaust your monthly data usage limit, be prepared to shell out an extra Rs 5 per MB of data exchanged,' he says.
Still, with telecom operators launching data plans, especially for high-end devices like Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry, a consumer is forced to opt for a mobile internet service that's expensive. Arwa Pande, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher, had to opt for a data plan at Rs 499 a month to be able to use mobile internet on her iPhone.
'I was told that, with iPhone, I cannot avail any of the cheaper data plans that start at Rs 99,' she says. The result? Pande ends up paying upwards of Rs 1,500 per month, half of which goes as data charges. 'Fixed data charges for specific smartphones can really inflate the bill. I end up paying something similar to the rate for a PC internet connection, where both the speed and user experience is much better,' she laments.
No comments:
Post a Comment